The second post in the “Working with Faculty to Promote Metacognition” guest series is from educational consultant Valencia Gabay, who writes about establishing communities of practice with faculty at a fully online institution to promote metacognition through the instructors’ own reflections on teaching.

by Valencia Gabay
Educational Consultant, Orlando, Florida
Doctoral Student, Organizational Leadership
Indiana Wesleyan University

In our society, the tides of change force students to be highly motivated, self-directed learners. However, authors Cameron and Quinn (2015) stated, “The implication in education is that we are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, to use technologies that have not yet been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet” (p. 9). So, how do we prepare students to flourish in this brave new world? One answer: we inspire them to be intellectually curious and use their metacognitive knowledge.  But, we must first tap into our own metacognitive knowledge to support students in doing the same.

Metacognition is thinking about how you think and the ability to evaluate one’s use of knowledge in learning and decision-making processes (Halpern, 2015). And, like critical thinking, metacognitive skills can be taught even in a virtual learning environment. Our book, Group Coaching and Mentoring: A Framework for Fostering Organizational Change (Algozzini, Gabay, Voyles, Bessolo, & Batchelor, 2017) presented a unique professional development model in which the community of practice approach helped online instructors integrate metacognitive strategies into their instructional practices.

I use the study described in this book to illustrate how instructors, in collective learning spaces, can generate intellectual curiosity and metacognitive energy that is transferable to the virtual classroom (Algozzini et al., 2017). In this study, a faculty director at a fully online university placed 43 online instructors into six communities of practice, each facilitated by a mentor lead. Using web-based conferencing tools, communities of practice met weekly over approximately nine months to discuss information on metacognition and its value to their professional development. Communities of practice cultivated metacognitive energy in two distinct ways.

Using Self-reflection

First, leads used communities of practice to create moments for self-reflection. Instructors assessed their current teaching styles with their peers and examined ways metacognition could influence job performance. Reflection is paramount to enhancing metacognition, but it is essential to know how to question to prompt reflection. According to organizational psychologist and researcher Dr. Tasha Eurich (2017),

• Why questions can draw us to our limitations;
• What questions help us see our potential.
• Why questions stir up negative emotions;
• What questions keep us curious.
• Why questions trap us in our past;
• What questions help us create a better future. (Eurich, 2017, para. 13)

As such, our community leads used the following lines of questioning to encourage instructors to foster a stronger connection with metacognition.

• In your own words, how would you define metacognition?
• What does metacognition mean for you as an instructor?
• What information from the resources about metacognition resonated with you the most?
• How can you apply that information in the classroom setting to promote student success?

The reflective questioning sparked a renewed interest in intellectual wellbeing. Instructors saw themselves as learners, became aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and set attainable goals towards self-improvement. 

Creating Metacognitively-based Conversations

Second, instructors learned how to fashion metacognitively-based conversations. Those who question critically tend to be strong critical thinkers, and critical thinkers rely on metacognition to ensure their thinking processes will reach desired learning outcomes (Halpern, 2014). Therefore, the community leads challenged instructors to use open-ended questions to keep discussions robust when engaging with their colleagues in communities of practice meetings.  Additionally, instructors participated in exercises using Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop question stems that produced higher order thinking.

Impact for Online Instructors

In a survey, instructors reported that communities of practice provided a safe place for learning how to question and evaluate one’s skills. After working in communities of practice, instructors became more confident using metacognition to bridge gaps in their work performance (Algozzini et al., 2017). Most importantly, instructors possessed a model for generating intellectual curiosity and metacognition among their students. It started with teaching them the power of reflective questioning. This change in teaching style emerged through the prism of social, teaching, and cognitive presence (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2005).

Instructors increased their social presence and transformed their virtual classrooms into a community where students felt comfortable reflecting on what they learned. (Here is a collection of Tips for Creating Social Presence in Online Classrooms.) Instructors knew that students possess a teaching presence; they learn with and from each other. Therefore, instructors made learning content more relatable. They incorporated popular global or national issues relevant to the class discussion, so students could apply what they learned to real life examples. Finally, instructors strengthened their cognitive presence by using class forums to host metacognitively-based conversations. They challenged student thinking by asking open-ended questions and pushing them to support their claims with facts (Algozzini et al., 2017). As instructors demonstrated these tactics, students did the same among their peers.

Inspiring students to be intellectually curious begins with us recognizing that we as instructors are also learners who need to invest in our intellectual wellbeing to better serve the population we teach. We want students to know how to reflect and question as they develop into the thought leaders and global thinkers of tomorrow.  So, as you prepare your students for this brave new world, consider the following questions: How are you staying intellectually curious? In what ways are you using your metacognitive knowledge to support students to think and to question?

References

Algozzini, L., Gabay,V., Voyles, S., Bessolo, K., & Batchelor, G. (2017). Group coaching and mentoring: A framework for fostering organizational change. Campbell, CA: FastPencil, Inc. 

Cameron, K. S & Quinn, R.E. (2011). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture. San Francisco, CA:  John Wiley & Son, INC.

Eurich, T. (2017). The right way to be introspective: Yes, there’s a wrong way. Retrieved from https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/

Garrison, D. R., Anderson T., & Archer, W. (2010). The first decade of the community of inquiry framework: A retrospective. Internet and Higher Education, 13(1), 1–2.

Halpern, D. F. (2014). Thought and knowledge, An introduction to critical thinking, (5th ed.). New York, NY: Psychology Press.